I used to hate podcasts, but that didn't last long. I got a longer commute, bandwidth became less of an issue and podcasts, frankly, got better. Of course, I'm a smidge biased.

I listen to a number of podcasts, not all technical, of course. I also watch the nightly news and a number of other news and political TV shows delivered not over the air or via cable, but by podcast.

Here's some technical podcasts, collected and recommended by my folks and friends on Twitter. I've heard some, and added my thoughts. Others I look forward to listening to. They are listed in no particular order. I threw mine in there as well. ;)

NOTE: If you've created a list of YOUR favorite .NET Podcasts, send me a link to your blog and I'll add it here:

Hanselman's Super Karate Death Car List of .NET and Software Podcasts

Thoughtworks IT Matters- I respect a lot of the guys over at Thoughtworks so I'll give this a listen just based on that. It looks like it's updated infrequently, and there's no dates on their shows on the site (the RSS includes them), so hopefully they'll get a nice meter going and perhaps commit to a monthly or weekly schedule. Looks promising and fairy platform-agnostic, so likely useful for anyone programming in any language.

I'm a .NET person, but I also dabble in Ruby and did some time at Nike coding Java. I also like gadgets so the show has become all of the above plus (I think) interesting interviews.

.NET Rocks - The first and longest running, now on show #418 which is CRAZY. Richard and Carl set the standard for those that followed them. Often interviews, sometimes random, always interesting, .NET Rocks is the gold standard.

ALT.NET Podcast - "You're the type of developer who uses whatever works while keeping an eye out for a better way, you reach outside the mainstream to adopt the best of any community, you're not content with the status quo and you realize that tools are great, but they only take you so far..." this might be the podcast for you.

ASP.NET Podcast by Wally McClure- The site design is a little wacky, but Wally's got 130+ podcasts focused entirely on ASP.NET and the content continues. He has covered Azure, lots of ASP.NET AJAX, jQuery and many other topics.

Polymorphic Podcast - Craig Shoemaker works for Infragistics and hosts this .NET focused podcast. It's a little spotty as far as the frequency of updates, but he has an easy style and focuses a lot of ASP.NET. He's also had a couple of killer interviews like his one with craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

Herding Code - Hosted by K. Scott Allen, Kevin Dente, Scott Koon and Jon Galloway, this is kind of the TWiT of .NET podcasts. If you ever wish you could go to coffee and shoot the sh*t with some really smart folks, but you just can't find enough find enough smart guys or enough coffee, look no farther than Herding Code. Each host has a different perspective that adds to the conversation. The sound quality and leveling can be a little off, but not enough to distract from the good content.

Deep Fried Bytes - "Deep Fried Bytes is an audio talk show with a Southern flavor hosted by technologists and developers Keith Elder and Chris Woodruff." Also tends to be a little irregular as far as publish dates, but they always have interesting guests. Mostly Windows focused, but not in a fanboy way, they've had a Linux/Gnome guest and are off to a fine start.

Software Engineering Radio - A language and platform agnostic show, these folks have over 120 shows in the can. The audio quality has been a little inconsistent, but the content is diverse and the guests are first class. Frankly this is one of the most diverse podcasts out there, and they do it without sacrificing depth. Recommended.

The Java Posse - To understand .NET, one has to understand that which came before. The Java Posse has hosts from Sun, Google and Navigenics and is a really quick and terse way to get up to speed on what's happening in the world of Java. It tends to be a little random and conversational, but they have VERY thorough show notes and links. If you're into Java or selling against Java, a podcast to watch.

OpenWeb Podcast - It's new, but it's got John Resig. They are still getting the handle of the audio and tend to have problems overdriving the microphone and have issues with leveling and so that's a little distracting. However, it's got some really smart Google and Mozilla employees talking about the Open Web and how to keep it open. They also get +2 Charisma for publishing not only in MP3 but also in (the kind of irrelevant but totally open) OGG Vorbis format.

They have been REALLY spotty, publishing only every month or two, but that's probably because they are DOING things to make the web better. Let's pressure them to publish more.

Ruby on Rails Podcast - Also pretty spotting on their publish dates, but always a good overview about what's going on in the world of Ruby on Rails. Tends to be a little chattier than I like in a technical podcast "Hey, how's it going, good, how's the weather" but that's a stylistic thing.

This Week on Channel 9 - This is kind of "The Daily Show" for Microsoft Developer Geeks. "Every week Dan Fernandez and Brian Keller sift through hundreds of blogs, videos, and announcements to find the most important stories in the developer community." It's a video podcast primarily, but they also off an MP3 download version as well as versions for iPod and Zune. I visit this show in person every few months, and it's a lot of fun and a great rollup of the week's goings on.

Elegant CodeCast - With a spin towards the Agile/TDD crowd, Elegant CodeCast puts on a show on a roughly twice a month basis.

Enjoy! I say give each one a trial or two and see which shows stick. That's what I do. Then I revisit them a year later to see if they stick differently.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

IMHO, a problem with the .NET podcasts is that they seem to take turns talking to the exact same people. So you can get pretty far just choosing one based on the quality of the host(s). One interview with Glenn Block is fine, I don't need three or four - at least not within the same month.

I still do hate podcast :) I still have a very slow internet line but the only podcasts I like are the ones from Hanselminutes because of the PDF transcripts. I usually wait for the transcripts to appear to go and have a read.RegardsShivam

I'm a huge fan of Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott. I believe it's a good one for .NET developers to listen to because it features a great discussion around the Windows platform in-general. That, and it's produced well (Leo Laporte is da man) - something that's hard to come by on most podcasts these days.

I made a mini list at http://weblogs.asp.net/olakarlsson/archive/2009/02/10/the-alternative-podcast-list.aspx it's got a couple of additions to your list. RIA Weekly, for RIA news and Boagworld for web design and web-standards info.

I have to agree with the point that Einar W. Høst makes: a number of podcasts recycle guests from other programs. They're good guests, generally, but the group of conference speakers/trainers/blue badge Program Managers is over-represented. For that reason, I will give props to The Thirsty Developer Podcast. They make an effort to talk to people who are shipping projects and are out in the trenches. Admittedly, it can be hit-or-miss, as the guests are not always polished, but it's interesting enough to rate a listen.

I also have to give props to Software Engineering Radio. You can't beat it for passionate concern about the craft of software engineering. It's rarely .NET focused (although the show about Oslo was spectacular), but it goes deep on all sorts of topics. I come away from every show thinking, "I should check that out," even if the topic is wildly esoteric. If I could only listen to one podcast, I'd flip coin between that... and Hanselminutes.

And while we're on the topic, when are you going to do another show that's just about cool sh*t? That used to be the topic of every show when you started, but now it's rare. The new direction is great, but how about a show of the all the cool Hanselminutiae you've discovered within Microsoft?

Rob Collins

Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:08:33 UTC

Thanks for the Alt.NET Podcast mention. I hope that the folks who haven't heard of it yet will give it a chance. I'm proud of what we've built. I've tried to mix it up with folks you usually don't hear from, but I understand the frustration with recycled topics. Hopefully we've provided a slightly different perspective that folks will find informative and enjoyable.

But now that I'm no longer hosting the Alt.NET Podcast, perhaps I should work on getting my Rubiverse podcast on these lists...

If you're an asp.net web developer, podcasts about web design, SEO, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ajax, good user experience.. etc are helpful. I would like to hear about good podcasts in those fields. I listen to boagworld.com

Coolest Hanselman, you've made my day(s). I have downloaded all the MP3s and I will have you in my heart (and ears) forever! Happy Valentine's! >:)

But I have to ask, do you know of any good audio only podcasts covering algorithms and the more theoretical approaches to IT? Most of those I found are either really bad in terms of audio quality or just lecture recordings from different universities and half of them is listening to a guy writing things on a blackboard. I know real life .Net programming has little to do with advanced algorithms, but sometimes you can't solve things without them and, worse of all, you don't realize they are usable because you've never known they existed. Also, while you made valiant efforts to bring IT academics to the show, most of the stuff they talk is incomprehensible to mere laymen. Help!

I'm stunned (really really suprised) that you don't list RunAs Radio though? These guys Richard & Greg are on it geared a little more for the IT Pro but still great content & worth listening to as a developer.

I agree with including SE Radio. Marcus' interview awhile back with Anders still sticks in my mind as what a podcast should be.

John

Wednesday, 11 February 2009 09:48:25 UTC

"recommended by the my folks and friends"?

Ooops

Wednesday, 11 February 2009 11:57:30 UTC

Great list Scott.

Are any of these podcasts available in double-speed? With so much good content out there, there's only so much that one can listen to and a double-speed podcast would allow more consumption. I know that I could listen in double-speed on my PC, but what about on my iPod or G1? Also, much more efficient for the producers to speed up the playback and then consumers can just dowload the faster version and enjoy.

OneSource adf471587879rzq

Wednesday, 11 February 2009 16:24:01 UTC

OneSource (ChrisJ): If you rename your .m4a files to .m4b, then your iPod thinks they are books. You can set the Audiobook speed in iPod settings.

Scott - we're listing a whole bunch of podcasts on developerFusion including all the ones you mention (I think!). In the next few weeks there will be some extra neat stuff so you can track down the popular episodes and such like too :)

LaptopHeaven: I really like podcast handling features of my Zune (this is the primary reason why I stick with the Zune line). I like how I can stop podcast listen to something else, then get back to the place I stopped (this works for multiple podcasts simultaneously). Syncing also works very well. I don't know how iPods handle podcasts (in general, I'm not a fan of iTunes), or how other MP3 players deal with podcasts (none out of four other MP3 players I had supported podcasting features). I would also like to know what other people use/like (in case I decide to dump my Zune in favor of something else).

I wonder if there is a service that would rate and/or recommend podcast episodes (via user feedback). My problem is that I don't have enough time to listen to all of my podcast subscriptions, so it would be nice to know if there was a recent recommended (controversial, insightful, funny, etc) episode that I would otherswise miss.

So used to your podcasts, I tried the others and the audio sounded really bad. Coincidentally, that was after listening to the podcast when Carl taught you the basics of audio equipment and recording techniques.

On their own they probably would not have made me realise the audio quality (not listening to music after all). But your podcast and DNR make it appear like 8-bit 256 colour vs 24-bit colour. Or like drinking plain water after licking up a sinfully sweet orange ice cream. Even the noticeable delay from Internet latency also became an annoyance.

We cannot really blame them either (who expects to see HD video on youtube.com anyway). But now i spend more time thinking about the audio recording techniques than what they are actually discussing. All thanks to you!

Yes, I know Mondays isn't programming related, but it certainly is geek-related. If you enjoy listening to clever people being idiots and aren't easily offended by bad words, then it's certainly worth a listen. NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

Damian Powell

Saturday, 14 February 2009 03:26:36 UTC

I think your podcast got much better when you dumped carl franklin, that dude is so annoying, it's a shame really .net rocks has potential.

Dave

Sunday, 15 February 2009 23:19:47 UTC

Hello Scott,

What about podcasts for .Net developers in other languages than english such as french, german or swedish...

For the french audience, Guy Barrette and I, we have been running the Visual Studio Talk Show for over 4 years now. It could be interesting to add in your list foreign podcasts such as our under an "International" section.

A short survey using the private email list of Microsoft Regional Director could help you locate them.